Paneer damdaar - Restaurant Style(Step by Step)

Paneer Damdaar is an authentic dish from the Mughlai cuisine of  India.It gets its name from the rich ingredients that make the dish more strong in flavors and nutrition.Basically, the spices used in our daily cooking are given a little bend to produce Nawabi flavors.Use of milk, cashews, clarified butter(Ghee) make it rich in nutrition value.

Preparation Time	Cooking Time	Servings
20 Minutes	25 minutes	4

Ingredients:

Clarified Butter (To Cook)

Black cardamom(Kali Elaichi) - 1 (Little Crushed)

Red Chilli(Lal Mirch) - 1 (sabut)

Peppercorns(Kali Mirch) -3

Black Cumin(Shahi Jeera) - 1 tsp

Capsicum (Shimla Mirch) - Green, Yellow, and Red

Bay Leaf (Tez Patta) 

Cinnamon(Dal Chini) - 1 stick

Cloves (Laung)

Coriander Seeds(Dhaniya)

Garlic (lehsun) - 5-6 

Ginger (adrak) - 1 tsp

Tomato puree - 1 cup

Onions - 3 medium sized

Milk/Cream - 0.5 cup

Cashew nuts 

Paneer - 250gm

Grated Cheese/ Coriander Leaves (To garnish)

Spices(Masala):

Salt(to taste) 

Tandoori Masala 

Lal Mirch - 0.5 tsp

Garam Masala

Dhaniya Powder

Tandoori Masala

Jeera Powder

Suggestions: If you do not find the 'tandoori masala' in the market, you can easily prepare it at home.

Take sabut dhaniya(good quantity), 1 sabut lal mirch, 1 dal chini stick, 1 tsp jeera, kali mirch, green cardamom, 1 badi eliachi and some red food color.Dry roast them in a pan for 5 minutes until there is a nice pungent smell.Do not heat too much or overcook.Now grind them to a fine powder and your tandoori masala is ready :)

Let's start with the step to step demonstration :

1. Heat 3 tsp of clarified butter(ghee) in a pan  

2. Once hot, add bay leaf(tez patta), black cardamom, Peppercorns, Black Cumin, Cloves, Cinnamon, Red Chilli and let it cook for 2 minutes.Keep stirring so that the ghee absorbs the flavour of these coarse spices.

3. Now add garlic (no need to chop as we will ground them later to a paste) and ginger(grated/coarse).Cook for a few minutes.

4. Now add 2 medium sized onions(roughly chopped) and cashew nuts.Add a pinch of salt.This will help the onions to cook.Keep stirring so that the cashews do not get overcooked.

5. Once the onions are soft, place the contents of the pan in a separate bowl to cool down before we grind it into a fine paste.

6. Now chop 1 onion, green, yellow and red pepper into square pieces.Heat the pan, add a tsp of ghee and cook the pepper until they are little soft(you can also add a pinch of salt and cover the pan so that the cooking is quick).At this stage add paneer cubes.(We need to fry them).Once fried, keep them aside.

7. Now grind the mixture we prepared in phase1 (Do not forget to remove all the coarse spices like dalchini, badi eliachi, tez patta etc before grinding).

8. Place the pan on the low to medium flame, add 1 tsp haldi and 1 tsp kashmiri lal mirch.The color combination yellow and red gives the authentic orange color to the dish.Cook for 5 seconds and then add the grounded mixture to the pan. Also add tomato puree.

9. Add 1 tsp garam masala, 1.5 tsp dhaniya powder, 1 tsp tandoori masala, salt(to taste), little jeera powder, half tsp lal mirch powder and cook.

10. Add 1 cup of water and the rest of the vegetables and paneer.

11. Add half cup milk or 2 tsp cream and cook.You can keep the gravy content as per your requirements.

Cook for 5-6 minutes and your paneer damdaar is ready !!! Serve it hot with homemade naan or paratha!!! Good Luck and please share your valuable experiences and suggestions !!